ISL should have more teams and better referees: Joseph Gombau


ISL should have more teams and better referees: Joseph Gombau

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Former FC Barcelona youth team coach and current Odisha FC manager criticises ISL. The Spanish says ISL should be bigger league, with more teams and  the refereeing standards should increase.

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The Indian Super League season runs from October to March. The season consists of both the league stage, which lasts until late February or early March, and the playoffs, which take place in March. The league stage follows a double round-robin format, with each club playing the others twice. Once at their home stadium and once at their opponents’ stadium, for a total of just 18 matches each per season.

Bengaluru FC manager, Carles Cuadrat also found fault with the ISL format. The Former Mumbai City FC manager, Jorge Costa and Antonio Iriondo of Jamshedpur FC also besmirch the referees for taking silly decisions during the tournament.

The Spaniard Coach praises ISL’s management but the league should work on two aspects especially according to the 44-year old.

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 “ISL is very well conducted. The stadiums and travel are well organised. Nothing to complain about. But there should be a greater number of matches. Minimum 26-27 games and then the playoffs. It will make the league much better. The competition in the ISL was very good and cut-throat. Every single team can beat the other team on a given day.” – he said.

In the 2020-21 ISL season every team was supposed to play 27 matches. However, the league was suspended in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Also, the refereeing standard is poor. But I don’t want to blame the referees because they are not professionals. You need to bring them the tools to help them grow. They are working somewhere else and on weekends or off days, they are working as a referee. They should be focussed on one job. They need to train every day under foreign referees to improve. So, I don’t find fault with the referees. They should be helped,” – the Odisha FC manager added.

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Gombau has managed the Australian U-23 football team. He also managed as an assistant to the Australian senior team. He knows inside-out of the Australian football structure. He states two major differences between the two nations: infrastructure and quality of grassroot programmes.  

“The youth structure is very robust over there (Australia). There a lot of games for the kids along with great academies. India is starting to walk the same path now. Australia have a plan and a lot of investment in infrastructure with longer leagues in place. The kids must not only train well but they must also have more competitive matches for their all-round development. In India, the don’t play enough matches. There is a lot of room to improve in these aspects. Qatar have been working hard with their young players since 2008. They reaped rewards in 2019 by winning the AFC Asian Cup.” – Former Barcelona Youth manager said.

“Australia is also ahead in terms of facilities. The A-League is more matured. The quality of the pitches is also very different. The training pitches in India are not up to the mark. I was training in a first division club and the pitch was not good. When I played away games, the day before the match it was difficult to get good training pitches. So, I can imagine the condition of the pitch where the juniors train. These are the basics,” – Joseph added.

Joseph believes next decade can be game changer for India. India are sleeping giants in the world of football and they should capitalize on improving their standards at grassroots.

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“I am sure India will definitely catch up; it needs time. The next 10 years will be vital for India. There are good academies that are being established in the country. So now India will have players will with more knowledge and ideas. Currently, they lack simple concepts and basics. But with these academies, hopefully, things will improve.”

Joseph Gombau might be looking forward to sign a contract with New York-based club Queensboro FC after serving Odisha FC and Delhi Dynamos in the ISL.

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